Schmidt Homestead

Our new home in Woodburn, IL

Monday, August 13, 2007

The weekend was very hot here, so we were only able to get outside in the early morning and late evening. I’m trying to make a dent in the weeds that have overgrown our tomatoes – some are almost as tall as me! I’ve made it about half-way through, and they look lots better. I’ve had to add some new stakes, because some of the plants were only held up by the weeds that surrounded them! We’re getting a couple of regular tomatoes and a dozen or so cherry & grape tomatoes each day, so it won’t be long before we’re swamped in tomatoes.

Our earliest patch of green beans has finished producing, so I’m going to try to rip them out this week and plant some more. We may be able to get a second harvest in before it gets too cold this fall.

The horseflies here have become a problem. It’s usually just one horsefly at a time, but they circle our heads and land on our backs and drive us crazy. Stacy is our designated horsefly chaser – she tries her heart out, but isn’t very successful. I’m trying to get her to chase the horseflies that are circling MY head, rather than just hers. So far she just sits there looking at me like “Hey, there’s a bug flying around your head!”

We had our first rain in about 3 weeks last night. We only got 0.2” here, but Emily said we got over a half inch in St. Louis. A few more showers like that, and everything might turn back to green.